It (the problem) really is the first thing to check. I’ll fess up at the bottom.
So I went to the range. Got on paper and zeroed at 25 yards. Then went to 100. No. 1 below are the first two, No. 2 is dialed down 4 MOA.

The circle at the lower right is first suppressed shots. I dialed up 2 MOA and shot the orange splatter target on the far left. .432”. I’ll take it. I then locked that in as my zero and did first round hits on the dueling tree paddles at 200 and 300. And went home, where I reinstalled the zero stop shims:

The shims give you a little bit of a fudge factor if you need to dial down your zero on a high DA day. You can see that the actual stop is down about 1.75 MOA.

I just sent thank you notes to Vortex and Ruger. Oh, the problem? Well, wind, temperature, ammo, rifle and scope were perfect. The only remaining variable was the operator. I suspect I started chasing the windage with the dial and got lost. Lesson – do not chase the windage with the dial. Use your scope hash marks to offset. D’oh.

But at least the exercise gave me a positive reality check on the scope and rifle. Life is all about experiencing it, I guess. 🤡